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Copycats continue to thrive in 2014

I must have been writing a post like this one for the 1000th time, but sometimes it just becomes inevitable. Pakistani designers and brands have to somehow man up and stop shamelessly copying foreign brands. Back in 2013 a newspaper article picked up my post as a news story regarding Sana Safinaz copying a Zara pants’ print and brought me to notoriety. Then there was a flood of others (Hira Lari, Tabassum Mughal and Amna Aqeel) copying everything from Balmain to being heavily inspired by others.As I said before people in the industry spot and know of many more but they don’t want to severe ties, so in come people like myself who are always up to naming shaming such culprits.

Even though I have apparently reformed and resorted to content of other sort, some folks with keen eyes spotted these and here I am showcasing them in all their glory:

Starting with the most harmless one, an upcoming blogger Abeera who runs a blog called FashionTalk who interesting noted that Elan Lawn and So Kamal lawn by Zara Shahjahan had used the same print where the one used it on the kurta piece , the other opted to use the same for their shalwar. But thankfully it’s used a bit a differently not a copycat but maybe a case of bad judgement and same source materials.I personally feel this is permissible.

Textile giant GulAhmed who calls itself ‘the original lawn’ just had to copy the now gang raped design from Balmain‘s Fall 2012 collection. It is interesting that this particular collection seems to be the apple of about 7 designers’ eyes and reason for my heartache. Please spare this horror and move on to other things. If a mega brand with an army of designers headed by Shehnaz Basit Khan can roll out such blatant copies then I guess everyone else is good to go too.

Natasha Kamal who usually does bridals also seems to have heavily inspired by International designers Zuhair Murad and Elie Saab. Sehrish of the blog Sehrish Says recently brought this to my attention that not only are the designs glaring similar but the designer also seems to flaunt it as her way to pay tribute to these designers. Well played madam, well played! you dodged impending plagiarism accusations by stating the obvious.

Pakistan’s answer to Bryan Boy fashion blogger Baturwas kind enough to bring to my attention a photo of a lady wearing a grey top with a print exactly out of Naeem Khan collection. Although it is still unknown which brand/designer made this grey top , one can easily decipher that it was obviously not Naeem Khan looking at the horrendous fit and drape of that piece.

And just last week an instagram account by the name of Jawad Ahmed Siddiquiexposed another such abomination where a little known designer Momina Teli boldly ripped off an entire ensemble by Indian designer Anamika Khana. Not just the embroidery or the color we are talking everything.

How could fashion retailers be left behind, one of the shirts in Outfitters‘ Spring Summer 2014 collection were an exact rip off of a Zara‘s printed shirt.

One can go on and on but where does one draw the line. HSY recently took to social media and publicly expressed his displeasure when a bridal wear brand Lajwanti plagiarized a design(And a lot of his fans+followers chimed in their support too). This was a first, not that a big brand has been copied but the fact that a designer was publicly calling out another to name and shame. And since Lajwanti doesn’t enjoy patronage by renowned fashion writers/journalists nobody is staunchly defending them(Zara/highstreet does it why the brouhaha etc.) But then I came across this post which pitted an outfit from HSY’s vermilion red outfit from his Venom collection against a really similar look from Archana Kocharr‘s look from India Resortwear Fashion Week 2013. It’s weird because Archana‘s show took place in December 2013 and HSY‘s in February 2014.

It is refreshingly to see that a lot of people on Internet have started doing the dirty work of naming & shaming copycats publicly. And thankfully brands, designers and their knights can no longer audaciously defend such tales of incompetence. Recently Fifi Haroon wrote a piece about Fashion Parade held at Kensington Gardens for The News and a lot of designers got butthurt but they should all remember a quote by Churchill that “Criticism may not b agreeable but its necessary. It calls attention to unhealthy state of things”. So lets start calling spade a spade and shed a light on mediocrity and laziness.

19 responses to “Copycats continue to thrive in 2014”

I don’t think they should be labelled as copycats. I live in Milan and the summer fashion for the season is kurtas with high chaaks and no shalwars. Some of the prints, styles on display look a lot like our designers and Khaadi. If they can copy Pakistani and Indian designers and get away with only praises I think it’s only fair to leave them be. What should be shunned is designers who buy second hand stuff from itwar bazaar to embellish thier creations in store! Now that’s a real gyp!! I can name some of them too but will refrain.

In all commercial art forms people do take inspirations from peers there is no shame about it. Infact sometimes they happen to do better than the original ones. Also u create stuff from what u know already sometimes consciously sometimes unconsciously. And last but not the least this post may or may not be initiated by a competitor to defame other brands. Or someone so free stalking others inspirations rather creating something good him/herself. Or may be content has been written by a paid blogger who is otherwise jobless. So you can come up with some conspiracy theory in any bit of life. I say stop being a nit picker and let’s enjoy the beauty spreaded by our designers and brands.

Hello Bilal,
Thank you for taking time out and letting us know how you feel about state of affairs. I cannot comment on the whether bloggers whom I have featured are jobless, paid, from competitor’s or otherwise since I don’t know about them. I agree with the part that one should light a candle than curse the darkness we as bloggers write more good than bad about Pakistani designers. However a healthy introspective about our sad state of affairs is necessary.

Balmain has been a local favourite everybody seems to like that one collection of theirs. It is plagiarised to a point that i think balmain should sue our country
There are lots of inspirations. Most designers shy away from naming their foreign inspirations so its hard to draw parallels